Saturday, June 10, 2017

Adam West (1928-2017)

Of
all the actors who have portrayed Bruce Wayne and his crimefighting,
caped crusading alter ego Batman on (and off) camera, the third one,
Adam West, is probably the most memorable and the most beloved.

A
big part of my 1980s childhood (from reruns of the 1960s television
series and motion picture), West is one of those actors I wish I had
the chance to interview when I was a newspaper and magazine
entertainment writer in the 1990s and 2000s.

Short
of that, I got the next best thing – a 1966 Batman credit card with
West's personalized autograph (as both himself and Batman) that I
bought from West through his Web site a couple of years ago.

After
the Batmania craze ended in the late 1960s, West returned to the role
several times in animated form along with his co-star Burt Ward as
Dick Grayson/Robin. The two also reunited for a
semi-autobiographical, live-action TV movie in the early 2000s and
most recently voiced their characters for an animated film set during
the original show's era and released last year for the 50th
anniversary.

West
also received late-career notoriety playing himself on an episode of
The Simpsons and an even more outlandish version – Mayor
Adam West – on Family Guy.

Of
all the Batmen before and after West, the ones with the most
historical distinction are the first actor to play Batman (Lewis
Wilson in the 1943 movie serial Batman) and the first actor to
play Batman since West (Michael Keaton in the 1989 movie Batman,
21 years after the end of the TV series).

But
the one Batman to rule them all is Adam West, who truly will be
Batman forever.